How many pins is too many?

Don't look at me like that.
I know it sounds like a really dumb question.

I'm talking about Pinterest of course. Pins on pin boards. How many is too many?

I was tooling around Pinterest today. I get a weekly email showing me boards I might want to follow. The message is assembled based on my pins and 'likes' on the site, and, I don't mind if they keep track of that kind of data. Considering the kinds of things I pin, I think it's pretty harmless. We're talking about art and fashion dolls, clothes and kitchens, favorite movies and Marilyn Monroe. These are the same things most every other pinner on Pinterest is interested in. I'm sure of it. A flock of folks obsessed with pinning. Why it has become a twenty-first century sport!

Sampler Blanket from Ravelry

So, you're probably wondering why I ask this question. Okay. I'll tell you.

Labores De Aguja. It means "needlework" in Spanish. A lovely needlework image was offered under the "Boards To Follow" section, so I clicked on it. The name of the board was "Labores De Aguja" and there were 9,572 pins. Nine thousand, five hundred and seventy two.

Holey mackerel! It would take two days to look through 9,572 pins!

This got me to thinking about my own pin boards. I'm not in a profession that would make Pinterest useful to my business. I simply love dolls, fashion and art, and any combination thereof. However, I had recently capped my board, "Lookbook As I See It" at 1,000 pins. I realized that was enough. I even considered that it is too many.

Then, today, while researching for this blog post, I saw that my "Type & Art, plain & simple" board has 1,098 pins.

Oh, yeah. Clearly, I need to sort through them and create new boards that are more specific. Maybe one for "Type" and one for "Art." I have one dedicated to "Watercolors" and it has definitely made it easier to find an item than, say, having to pore through a thousand pins. Yep. I think I'm gonna do that.

I don't know if other folks use their pin boards for reference. I often refer to my "Good Eats" board for those saved recipes. And, my board, "My Style & then some..." has been a lifesaver when shopping. I always have to show the stylist what I want at Supercuts because I don't always get the same stylist. And, I pin clothing purchases so I can refer to them when I'm shopping if I want to match color or some other little detail. I actually use them.

Who knew?

So, as I question my own use of Pinterest, I realize I must also edit my "Fashion Dolls" pin board. That one has more than 1,600 pins, and that's waaayy too many! How am I going to divvy those up?

Well, I guess you can figure out what I'm going to do during my down time today. Yep.

Sift and sort my doll pins. It's sort of like pulling weeds. It's an opportunity to bring order to something in my life, and considering there are so many things I have no control over, it's nice to be able to do this and see the results.

Enjoy your day!

And, hey! Thanks for stopping by!

my most pinned pin on Pinterest

Pinterest was launched in March of 2010. For the first couple of years you had to be "invited" to join. I requested an invitation on a couple of occasions after I discovered the site in 2011, but I never received one. Then, finally, in December 2011 they let you in via Facebook and this pinner was born!

In the first few months, I was obsessed, which I wrote about here. I overcame the obsession and began to use Pinterest for my own purposes (mostly dolls and clothes) and now it is my favorite inspiration board. Like Facebook, I visit Pinterest almost daily. I "pin" things to bookmark them and I really do return to my boards on a regular basis. Lately my watercolors pin board has been my favorite inspirational board. And, my photograph board. There is so much to learn about both of these subjects and it's delightful to have one place to put all that stuff! It beats rifling through a drawer of file folders!

So, this post is about my "most pinned pin." That's it, right there. The haircut. It's pinned to my style board and, as of today, has been pinned 2,200 times and liked 491 times. And, it's evoked quite a conversation of comments about short hair, particularly pixie cuts. It seems that young women are eager to try the pixie cut but are afraid it won't look good on them. I don't think anyone looks bad with a pixie cut. That's just my opinion, of course, but every woman I've known of any age who got her hair whacked off into a pixie discovered it is the most flattering cut of all.

The only thing I know about the young woman in the photo is that her name is Ema and she is from Romania. I found the picture on a photography blog that included about 20 photos of this lovely young woman, apparently shot in the spring of 2012. This particular photo appealed to me because she's wearing red lipstick and glasses and I think the contrast makes for a really great portrait! Oh! And, I love the haircut!

I'm not entirely sure how they keep count of who pins what, but it really doesn't matter. What became clear to me since I first started this pinning thing is, it's all about connecting to people who share your views. About art. About fashion dolls. About personal style. About a great haircut!

Who could ask for more? Certainly not me!

Who gets paid when you pin on Pinterest?

I have 2,059 followers on Pinterest today. I don't obsess about it like I did here, so, when I reached the 2,000 benchmark sometime last week, it was a surprise. I know it doesn't matter in the overall scheme of things, but it matters to me because it reflects my connection to the rest of the world. And, I like that about Pinterest. Sharing ...

Around the time my counter crossed that 2,000 mark, I received a message via e-mail from Pinterest addressing the "testing" of what they're calling "promoted pins."  In the back of my mind, I knew it was just a matter of time before PAID advertising came to Pinterest. And, that message explained how the test would go.

Then, while catching up on my e-mail this morning, I was lead to this article about Pinterest. The article came from AD AGE.

Pinterest Will Test Promoted Pins -- but Won't Charge for Them (Yet)
By Cotton Delo, Published September 19, 2013
Part of Social-Bookmarking Company's Inevitable March Toward an Ad Business

So, now I have questions. How will that affect the overall appearance of Pinterest? Will the "advertisements" appear as pins? Don't a lot of advertisers already do that? Don't a lot of pinners already do that for a lot of companies?

For example, I have a pin board for Soft Surroundings. It's a catalog of fashions for women and the home and seems targeted to middle aged folks and I receive e-mails from them as well as printed catalogs via USPS at home.  By pinning the items I like to my pin board, aren't I already "advertising" for them? If someone "repins" from my board, then goes on to purchase that item, shouldn't I get a percentage of that sale for promoting the item that lead to the sale?

C'mon now! Aren't those "pins" advertisements?

You bet they are!

I have pinned things to my personal style board and actually purchased an item after pinning it. And, I've done this more than once! My most recent "Pinterest Purchase" was this sweater from Garnet Hill. I love polka dots, so as soon as I saw it, I pinned it. Then, it just wouldn't do but I had to have it. Click. Click. Click. And, that adorable garment is at home, waiting for cooler weather so I can wear it!

A valid pin leads to the web site where the item is/was available, and it's merely a click or two or three and it's on its way to your address! Aren't advertisers already benefitting from Pinterest this way?

You bet they are!

It will be interesting to see how this goes. It is, after all, "social networking." We gravitate to those pins, pinners and pinboards of others who SHARE our style, interests and ideas. Marketers are itching to figure out how to make money from that. Me? I'm happy to have so many followers!

I've changed how I use Pinterest ...

I am a doll collector. If you've visited this blog more than once, you may know that.

I started with Barbie.
Loved her as a child.
Love her as an adult.

Then I met the Asian dolls, Momoko, Misaki, Susie and Kana!

Which lead to Jason Wu's Integrity Toy Company where Fashion Royalty and Poppy Parker dolls are created in very limited numbers.

Not to mention the 16-inch dolls Gene Marshall and Tyler Wentworth.

Clothes. Accessories. Furniture to scale. Cars. Books and Magazines. Shelves of dolls. And, more shelves filled with my girls! A room dedicated to my hobby.

BUT.
You see, the thing about being a collector of anything is that you want to meet other collectors who collect the same kind of thing you collect.

Got it?

Doll collectors are an enthusiastic group for the most part. They enjoy sharing their collections and being with people who enjoy talking about dolls. Up until the turn of the century, we would meet at doll shows and club meetings and conventions, but today, the doll show has all but disappeared from the collectors' social landscape, doll clubs come with their own politics, and conventions are few and far between and very expensive. This change in how doll collectors congregate is a direct result of the internet.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, doll collectors began turning to ebay to purchase the dolls of their dreams. This online marketplace decimated doll shows and took away the most rewarding way collectors had to connect to each other. Then, just when we had adjusted and become accustomed to being lonely doll collectors again, social networking appeared.

It took a while ... but, we found each other again ... and, then some! Which was my answer to gaining "followers" on Pinterest!

I gain from 2 to 5 new followers a day now because of my doll pin boards. And, the movement is growing! Doll collectors have been sharing on Flickr for years, and, yes, you can create sets and collections with your photos. But, it's not the same. Somehow Pinterest brings collectors together in a new way.

Last year, shortly after I discovered Pinterest, I was, for reasons I cannot explain, obsessed with the site and the process of pinning. {I even write about it here.}

For nigh onto a month, I did it for hours each day. The Android ap wasn't yet developed, but I found a way to pin on my smart phone. {Yes, I was ecstatic when they DID create the ap!}

About two months into it, I created my Fashion Dolls board. I thought it would be fun to create a place where I could have stuff that I liked! A couple of months after that, I saw I had a lot of Barbie Fashion Model Collection (BFMC) pins, so I created a board dedicated to them. Then, Vintage Barbie & Friends followed, along with Momoko and Poppy Parker and, more recently, Barbie Basics. Just like a small child, I found the process of sorting these images and web site links very satisfying. And, it was free!

My most useful pinboard is "handmade."  I like to knit and crochet, do scrapbook and journal stuff, so Pinterest has become an especially good way for me to keep up with those crochet sock patterns I wanted to try and those journaling ideas I had admired and felt inspired by.

And, the time did I arrive when I actually USED my pin board as a RESOURCE! Over the weekend, I was working on a granny square afghan I've been making for forever. (Or, so it seems!) I had pinned several different methods for joining those granny squares, so, it was a pleasure to not have to wrestle with my 3-ring binder of patterns or folded sheets of paper buried in my yarn basket to find the one I wanted. It was right there on my "handmade" pin board.

I introduced my darling husband to Pinterest, but not because he's into fashion or landscape design ideas like me. Instead, it became useful when we were doing work on our kitchen. It provided me with a forum to share with him on line as we shopped for materials and design ideas.

He has since discovered it is a handy way for keeping track of recipes. He likes to cook and bake and he's always on the lookout for new ideas for the kitchen! He has a 7.5-inch tablet and sets it on the counter just as my mother and grandmother used to do with their recipes written on 5" x 3" index cards.

My how times have changed, huh?

So, where I used to be obsessed with how many pins and followers I had, today, Pinterest has become a genuine resource for me, and, I think, for others who share my interests. Especially doll collectors! We're a special breed and we've found a new way to connect! Maybe that's what the Pinterest people intended all along!

Bohemian ~ what is it exactly?

Bo·he·mi·an 

[boh-hee-mee-uhn]  

noun

1.

a native or inhabitant of Bohemia.

2.

(usually lowercase) a person, as an artist or writer, who lives and acts free of regard for conventional rules and practices.

3.

the Czech language, especially as spoken in Bohemia.

4.

a Gypsy.

Bohemian artist Beatrice Wood who died at age 105.

I was looking through my pin boards on Pinterest and discovered some underlying themes. I like old stuff, vintage stuff, stuff that isn't matchy-matchy, stuff and people with character, clothes that look like you've owned them for a long time and homes that appear to have been occupied for a lot of years.

That's what I think of when I hear the word "bohemian." So, I decided to look it up and find out what it REALLY means.

Bohemia is an historical region in central Europe now identified as the Czech Republic. The word itself comes from the French, Bohême, and, in our society, one thinks of artists as being bohemian. 

I remember as a girl my parents had friends who were often referred to as bohemian. She was a painter and he was a writer for the local newspaper. They always looked different from everyone else in those days (1957-1963), so I guess the word was used correctly.

I think a lot of it has to do with money. Artists and writers often don't have well paying jobs, so they must make do with what they have. Their homes reflect their creativity in the absence of funding and their style is evolved from shopping second hand.

What's funny (to me) is how bohemian style has been embraced by the younger generation of today. Some say it's the 1970s influence, but I see it as a mirror of these tough economic times.

Whatever it is, I like it.

So, my Pinterest boards reflect a little bohemian spirit. 

For that reason, I've captured a few of my favorite images for your perusal today. 

I hope you enjoy seeing them! 

The Art of Pinterest ...

When I first wrote about my growing obsession with Pinterest, I thought that the act of writing would change the dynamic. And, it did. But, it took a while for the changes to take.

Since I discovered it in late January, I've curated my Pinterest boards as though they were bookshelves in my office, visible for everyone to see. And, of course, I think that people will look at a board where you have collected this amazing set of images and think, "Wow! I like what this person sees!"

Of course, that's NOT how it happens. I know that, silly!

I don't think I'm "addicted" anymore, though. Oh, I still go there. But, not every day.

Now that I've established my presence there, I don't feel the need to create my presence. It's done. And, that may very well be the driving force for me over on Pinterest: the need to create something.

Along the way, I've come to recognize why I like Pinterest so much. I went through this same process with Flickr, Facebook and tumblr ... I was obsessed to learn how it works, what I can do with it and where it goes for me as a creative spirit. Once I figured that out, the obsession seemed to dissipate.  

Today, I use Pinterest to collect things all in one place where I can go back and enjoy them again ... and where I can add to them over time.  Much like my Barbie room at home!  It has evolved into a real creative outlet for me as well. Not only do I collect images, but also links to such things as galleries, crochet patterns, how-to's for arts and crafts projects, and recipes for salads. THAT is pretty cool, if you ask me!

So, here's a little sample of the collection I'm currently "curating" under my newest board "Think Green" ~

I suspect that, like Facebook and Twitter and the myriad of social networking sites available, Pinterest has the potential to be whatever we want it to be, meeting each person's need to bookmark, share and collect all sorts of things. It definitely serves a purpose that the other sites don't. So, thanks to Ben Silbermann and all the folks that run Pinterest. I'm glad you did this! I'm having a good time with it!   HAPPY SPRING!

Pinterest ~ the learning curve

I last posted about my newest "addiction" to Pinterest and, since then, I have forced myself to limit the amount of time I spend on the site. It's really difficult, though. I see the e-mail messages in my "in box" and am drawn to see who is re-pinning from my boards. Then, I visit their boards and, BOOM!  I'm off pinning again.   {{big sigh}}

For me, pinning has been all about collecting. There. I said it. I am a "collector." I collect fashion dolls in real life. I have an entire room dedicated to them. I created an exhibition of fashion dolls last summer at a local museum and, if you're on Facebook, you can see some of what we did here. I also collect ephemera, which I think stems from my love for the written word. But, back to my collections ... my "boards" on Pinterest.

In the beginning, it was all about the "eye candy." So many beautiful images and I could put them all in one place and revisit them anytime I wanted. "So, what!" you might say. "What good does that do a person?" And, you would be right. For someone like me, pinning images has no socially redeeming value whatsoever. Except, it allows me to organize what I like, and that's important to me!

Prior to joining Pinterest, I collected images from the Internet on my computer. If I saw something I  liked, it was as easy as a right-click and "save image as." I have folders titled "Pink" and "Blue" and "Type and Art" and they are full of things I've seen, liked and wanted to return to without having to, again, search for them. Now, I don't have to right-click! I just pin those little babies to one of my boards and enjoy visiting them!

Yesterday, after breaking my own rule about how much time I had spent on Pinterest, I took a closer look at what I was doing. I have 19 boards and they contain 2,787 pins. And, there are 274 "LIKES," which are completely separate from my boards. Now, I'm not quite sure what the logic is behind "liking" something if you can pin it. I'm thinking it's to track those things that don't belong to one of my boards. Of course, there could be some other reason for it, but I haven't a clue what it might be.

My favorite boards at the present moment are "All Things Pink!" and "beige to white and back again." I guess I'm on a color trip here lately. But, I also like my "Type & Art, plain and simple" board a lot, too, and that board has 132 followers after just a few weeks, so I must be doing something right if people are watching what I pin.

And, that's really what it's all about, if  you ask me. People have a chance to see how I see things. Why did I include this "blue" image and not that one? What criteria do I follow for "All Things Pink?" These are the questions I ponder when I consider this addiction of mine. And, as the number of my followers grows, I find I am even more critical of my boards. I check them to be sure I haven't pinned the same image twice. If it's pinned to the "Blue" board, it must be all about that particular shade of blue; no pink background; no green or yellow anywhere. It's about pure color and how the image conveys it.

I have become aware of legal issues with Pinterest this week. I was reading on other pinners' blogs about how they use Pinterest, good etiquette on Pinterest and discussions about the impact pinning might have on artists and internet businesses and I stumbled on this. So, now I'm not sure how much longer I'll be doing this. I may have to return to the right-click, "save image as" to keep up my collection madness. We'll see.

In the meantime, happy pinning! I'm going to balance my checkbook now!

Pinterest: artistic expression or addiction?

I discovered Pinterest sometime last year and found myself fascinated by the collection of images housed there. I desperately wanted to be a part of it, but you had to be "invited," and, in spite of repeated requests, no invitation was forthcoming. Then, on the first day of February (a Wednesday), I stopped by for a look-see (and, to place another request) and, lo, and behold! I discovered I could log in through my facebook ID. Joy of joys!

Right.

Ask me what I did on the second and third days of February. Did I work? (Not unless I had to.) Did I write? (Tag lines and descriptions, maybe.) Was I productive in any meaningful way?

Nope. I was just pinning away over there on Pinterest! For three solid days. Whatsa matta with me?

The second week of February I promised myself I would reduce the time I spent there. I had created some "boards" of my own and pinned things I liked and I could go on it for a little while, add a few things to my boards and be off. Yeah. Right.

I was busy with real work most of the time that second week of February, so there wasn't a lot of time to peruse images and add them to my collections. Until Friday morning (2/10) when I discovered I could "pin" on my brand new Android phone I received for my birthday a few days earlier! OMG! I could pin while having coffee, waiting at the vet's office, waiting on hubby to pump gas. I was really in trouble now!

There's no "app" for Android phones. Yet. There IS one for the iPhone. So, fine. I can pin without an app! Ha! Take that, iPeople!

Last week I was out and about doing what my boss pays me to do -- teaching elementary school kids about living in the Everglades. I managed to stay off Pinterest until late in the day when I only had a few minutes left in the day, limiting the time I was visiting. I also persuaded myself that I didn't NEED to be doing it so much. I liked Facebook, but I wasn't on it all the time. I use Twitter to share information. And, Google is a lot of fun even when you're looking up something related to work. But, this Pinterest thing is insidious. It steals your time in ways I've never experienced before and, honestly ... it bothers me.

I don't consider myself an addictive personality. I like what I like, and I've long lived with the motto "everything in moderation." But, Pinterest? I like it. A lot. I like doing it. I like looking at my "boards" and reviewing my collections. And, I have "followers!" But, I haven't figured out how to use it in moderations.

Followers on a blog are different from followers on Pinterest. It's, like, I know the people I follow over there. We have similar interests, similar styles, similar passions. And, I'm sure if I ever met any of the people I follow or that follow me ... why, I'm quite sure we would be great friends with many things to talk about.

So, I came over here to my blog and I'm actually WRITING! I've learned that if I write about a thing, often times, the solution will present itself as I'm writing.

Only, it hasn't happened yet. And, I find I'm hurrying up so I can go back over there and pin some more. Oh, dear. What's a girl to do?

I've got 20 minutes left at my desk.
I could catch up on filing.
I could update my calendar.
I could ...

GO PIN! ~~~~~



Where'd she go?